Warning: Undefined array key 1 in /home4/ireplibc/public_html/liberianewsnetwork/wp-content/plugins/featured-image-from-url/includes/jetpack.php on line 12
Warning: Undefined array key 1 in /home4/ireplibc/public_html/liberianewsnetwork/wp-content/plugins/featured-image-from-url/includes/jetpack.php on line 12
Warning: Undefined array key 1 in /home4/ireplibc/public_html/liberianewsnetwork/wp-content/plugins/featured-image-from-url/includes/jetpack.php on line 12
Warning: Undefined array key 1 in /home4/ireplibc/public_html/liberianewsnetwork/wp-content/plugins/featured-image-from-url/includes/jetpack.php on line 12
Warning: Undefined array key 1 in /home4/ireplibc/public_html/liberianewsnetwork/wp-content/plugins/featured-image-from-url/includes/jetpack.php on line 12
Warning: Undefined array key 1 in /home4/ireplibc/public_html/liberianewsnetwork/wp-content/plugins/featured-image-from-url/includes/jetpack.php on line 12
Warning: Undefined array key 1 in /home4/ireplibc/public_html/liberianewsnetwork/wp-content/plugins/featured-image-from-url/includes/jetpack.php on line 12
Warning: Undefined array key 1 in /home4/ireplibc/public_html/liberianewsnetwork/wp-content/plugins/featured-image-from-url/includes/jetpack.php on line 12
Warning: Undefined array key 1 in /home4/ireplibc/public_html/liberianewsnetwork/wp-content/plugins/featured-image-from-url/includes/jetpack.php on line 12
Warning: Undefined array key 1 in /home4/ireplibc/public_html/liberianewsnetwork/wp-content/plugins/featured-image-from-url/includes/jetpack.php on line 12
Warning: Undefined array key 1 in /home4/ireplibc/public_html/liberianewsnetwork/wp-content/plugins/featured-image-from-url/includes/jetpack.php on line 12
The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) in collaboration with Women NGO Secretariat of Liberia (WONGOSOL), has initiated consultations with women from political parties to enhance internal democracy, policies, and practices.
The two-day initiative, held over the weekend, aimed to foster inclusivity and promote women’s participation in political processes. The consultation was organized under the Liberia Electoral Support Project (LESP+) which is being implemented by a consortium that is managed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UN Women.
The project, supported by funding from the European Union, the Embassies of Ireland and Sweden, is focused on empowering political parties to prioritize democratic practices within their structures.
Cllr. Darren Domah, NIMD Program Manager, told participants at the opening of the two-day in Monrovia over the weekend that the event was meant to drive inclusive internal democracy, especially for women, as well as policies and practices.
“In other words, the initiative focuses on transparency, good governance, rule of law, and inclusion,” Domah said.
These consultations were done simultaneously with women and youth. So we completed a youth session yesterday and this is the women session,” he said
After the consultative process, Domah indicated that NIMD is going to enroll youth and women in what he termed as a Democracy School.
“This is not going to be a school where you say you go for lessons, grades or passing marks,” he clarified. “The democracy school will be an area where we bring people together with diverse experience in issues that we in this group will identify as challenging issues that have stopped us from extending politically.”
“So for example, if it is a rule of law, we as an institution will want to hire an experienced lawyer who has been working on the issues of inclusion, human rights.
And that lawyer is going to come to that school and have a whole day to talk to the cohort about how to navigate when you have these issues, what the law provides, where to go.”
“So if it is public speaking, if it is how to engage the audience in all of these things, you’re going to have people who have expertise in those areas.
They will come and help enhance our skills. And we are very hopeful that at the end of the day, we will be very equipped to engage and participate more meaningfully politically.”
NIMD is an international pro-democracy organization with offices in over 25 countries around the world. The organization is specialized in working to promote inclusive political participation.
“We are working to enhance general legislative activities,” Domah noted.
While the UNDP is providing technical support to the National Elections Commission (NEC), and strengthening its capacity, the UN Women is working with women across the country and conducting general audits and advocating into changing some of the legal instruments that are not favorable for women. UN Women is also working on issues of promoting the general quota and seeing how it can be legalized.
For NIMD, it is providing programmatic activities—working with the legislature, youth, women and political parties.
“With the legislature, we among other things are helping to enhance and modernize the seat of the First Branch of government,” he said. “We are hoping that between now and 2026 we will be able to help and digitize the legislature. We are also hoping to have a practice where when people have issues on the flow there can be meanings taken and published immediately after discussions.”
The fact that NIMD is working with women and youth groups, it intends to partner with local organizations that work with the legislature to monitor legislators who will be speaking about “women issues, who will be speaking about youth issues. We are going to have a system to know how long it took for a lawmaker to talk about women issue on the flow.”
“If you have a lawmaker from your district, and he’s on the floor or he’s in the legislature, we want to be able to get back to you to say this man or this lady has worked over the past one year.
He has not used the word woman in the legislature. He has not used the word youth. If he talked about youth, he took 20 seconds to just talk about youth-related issues. If he talks about women issues or she talks about women issues, she took less than one minute to talk about women issues.”
He added, “We are trying to set these standards because we are aware that in 2029, these people will come back and say we’ve been championing the cause of women issues.
So we want to have data available to the public so you will have already known how much contribution each of our lawmakers has been making to these different issues of interest that support and promote inclusive democracy.”
NIMD is hoping to work with political parties. Thus far, the organization says it has identified 12 political parties that it would start working with from next year. The parties were selected based on the fact that they have elected members in the legislature.
“We believe that’s the easiest criteria for the first year engagement. If you are a member of a political party that has a lawmaker in the parliament, we’re going to be working with your political party in year one,” he said.
The Monrovia consultation was the last of series of regional consultations which were a vital part of the project, with sessions held in various regions such as Buchanan (Margibi, Rivercess and Grand Bassa Counties), the western region (Grand Cape Mount, Gbapolu and Bomi Counties), central region (Lofa, Bong and Nimba Counties), and Southeast (Grand Kru, Maryland, Sinoe and Grand Gedeh Counties).
Each session involved approximately 30 participants for women and youth, except for the Southeast session, which had 40 participants. The outcomes of these consultations will be analyzed to identify key issues affecting youth and women in political participation. These findings will be validated by stakeholders, empowering women and youth to present their concerns to lawmakers for further consideration, Domah said.
